Sleigh Ride
by Shally-wa
Summary: Early Xmas fic! Spinoff of Bexis1' Fifth Element, posted w/ permission. Luna decides to get a rather recalcitrant third year into the holiday spirit. Luna/Jazzy friendship, can be read as prerelationship. Rated for mild cursing and oblique sexual refs.


This fic is a spinoff of Chapter 66 of Bexis1' story Harry Potter and the Fifth Element, posted with his permission. Jazzy, as well as the background for this story are his property. All other characters are property of Rowling, no matter how much I might like to own them. The song, Sleigh Ride, has been done by so many people that I don't know who it belongs to, but in any case, it is _not mine_.

If you have not read up through Chapter 66 (Happy Christmas), the fic has been updated to that point on Portkey and Fictionalley.

Thank you, and enjoy the fic!

* * *

**Sleigh Ride**

Something, or rather someone, was tugging at Jazzy's shoulder. She yanked away, burrowing herself deeper into the cocoon of thick blankets she had wrapped herself in. _Just five more minutes…_ But then the tugging started up again, and continued in a way that simply _could not_ be ignored. Jazzy rolled over and sat up, coming face to face with…

"Luna!? What in bloody hell are you doing here?"

For there she was perched quite comfortably on Jazzy's bed. She tilted her head slightly to the right as she calmly looked Jazzy over. "Why Jazeera, I would have thought you'd be up by now. I mean, just look outside!" She hopped lightly off of the bed and swept over to the window, flinging aside the curtains. Her necklace of– were those _bells?_– jangled as she moved

"Don't call me that," Jazzy snapped, mentally debating whether or not to reach for the blade under her tongue. Luna seemed harmless, so Jazzy just wrapped the covers tighter and scowled. "And I hate snow."

It seemed Luna had not heard, or more likely was simply ignoring the other girl's protests. Reaching over, she grasped Jazzy's wrist, pulling the third year bodily from the bed. "Come on, get dressed!"

"Why?" Jazzy was even more annoyed now, if that could be possible.

"We're going on a sleigh ride of course, silly!"

"A sleigh ride?" Jazzy had always found Luna to be more than a little insane, but the empath's latest idea left Jazzy wondering if a few more screws had come loose in Luna's brain.

"Of course!" Luna chirped. "The weather's perfect! And besides," she added, "It's only fair, after what you did for me yesterday." She grinned expectantly down at Jazzy as she hopped off the windowsill, her necklace jangling some more. Jazzy was really beginning to hate that necklace.

_**Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,  
**__**Ring ting tingling too  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you**_

Jazzy's first reaction was refusing to budge. But Luna proved far too persistent for that. Within fifteen minutes, Luna was dragging the younger girl out, evidently having concluded that pajamas and a jumper constituted suitable attire.

Luna glided out towards the stables, whistling some invented tune. Jazzy glared at her. It was freezing outside. _How the hell did I allow myself to get talked into this?_ Jazzy wondered, rubbing her arms. _She may bring me out here, but I refuse to enjoy this_.

When they reached the sleigh, Jazzy stopped and stared. The ornately decorated sleigh and harnesses contrasted bizarrely with the grim looking pair of thestrals that were in harness. _Where had she managed to get them?_ Jazzy could have sworn that she'd heard Harry mention the utter absence of holiday decorations.

"Do you like the decorations? I made them myself." Luna smiled at her.

Not sure how to reply, Jazzy stayed silent. Luna hopped brightly into the sleigh, motioning for Jazzy to follow. Mutely, Jazzy did so, perching awkwardly on the bench, uncertain of what to do next. Luna was bent over, rummaging around in the space in front of their feet. "Oh goody, here's a blanket!" she said, tossing a up a woolen bundle that looked like it had seen better days. Jazzy wasted no time in reconstructing her cocoon. Meanwhile, Luna grabbed the reins.

With one jerk of the reins, they were off, or rather _up_. Jazzy's stomach dropped, and she winced as she was thrown back against the seat with the force of the sudden movement. The snow, which had before been barely noticeable, now stung at her face.

Luna, of course, had not noticed anything. She was peering over the side of the sleigh, her pale blonde hair whipped into a cloud by the wind. What she was looking at, Jazzy couldn't tell. There wasn't really anything to _see_. Even without the blinding snow, it was still _dark_. Not to mention cold. Jazzy blew on her hands. Why was she the only one who was cold? Luna was just as carefree as always.

"Oh look, there's Neville! Hi, Neville!" Jazzy peered tentatively over the edge of the sleigh. Neville was indeed there, working with some vines from the overgrown garden. He stared up at them like they were insane. Which, she realized, they probably were. The sleigh veered suddenly, and Jazzy held on for dear life, whipping her head around to look at Luna. "Do you have any idea how to steer this thing?!"

"No, not at all… Why, is there a problem?" The empath was sitting there, evidently completely undisturbed by the turbulence.

_Great,_ Jazzy thought. _Just great_…

_**Outside the snow is falling  
**__**And friends are calling "Yoo Hoo"  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you**_

Fortunately, the thestrals seemed to have calmed down of their own accord. Jazzy sat back and hunched over, silently willing the ride to end, preferably soon. What sane person _enjoyed_ this sort of thing?

"Isn't it wonderful?" Jazzy turned. Luna was stretched out along her side of the sleigh, eyes closed in an expression of sheer bliss.

"I suppose you'd like it," Jazzy said, not without a trace of disdain.

"Of course! I mean, just look around…" Luna sat up and gestured dreamily at the ground. Jazzy acquiesced. It did actually look a little pretty, with the sun just starting to rise. "…though I suppose you aren't really seeing the half of it," she belatedly continued.

"What?" Jazzy asked, not understanding what Luna could mean by that. A landscape was a landscape, wasn't it?

"You can't see auras. It's too bad– they're really quite pretty in the snow…" Luna stopped and smiled, leaning in closer, as though she were about to reveal some secret. "I can though. I can see the thestrals, and mine, and yours… yours is really quite nice." She tilted her head, her eyes seeming almost to look straight through Jazzy. "It used to be all clouded over, but it's turning green now, with–" she stopped suddenly. "I really shouldn't tell you this now, it'll ruin all the fun."

"What fun?" Jazzy was completely lost. But the empath wouldn't answer. She just shook her head and smiled that same secret smile. The bells on her necklace jingled softly.

_**Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap  
**__**Let's go  
**__**Let's look at the show  
**__**We're riding in a wonderland of snow**_

Luna whistled contentedly, gazing around. Jazzy wondered how much longer it would be before the older girl tired of this. It wasn't so unbearable anymore, but it was more than a little boring. Jazzy almost wished the thestrals would go crazy again. Anything for a little excitement.

Suddenly Jazzy felt something cold under her blanket. She jerked hastily

away from the offending object, which turned out to be Luna's hand. Instinctively reaching a hand up to her mouth, she shot Luna a glare. "Why did you _do_ that?"

Luna seemed relatively untroubled by Jazzy's decidedly negative reaction. "I was going to hold your hand. It's what most people do, isn't it?"

Jazzy didn't have a clue whether or not Luna was correct, but she was far too pissed off to care. "Well I don't do 'most people,' I don't do sleigh rides, and I most definitely don't do holding hands!"

"Oh," Luna said calmly. They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "It looks like the inside of a fairies' nest, doesn't it?"

"How would I know?" Jazzy asked, shrugging.

"Oh, you probably wouldn't. I stuck my head in a fairies' nest once. It looked a lot like it was covered in ice. Just like this. They didn't like it though."

"I would imagine not." Jazzy had had a mostly Muggle upbringing, but she had heard enough stories to know that fairies were anything but friendly.

_**Giddy-yap giddy-yap giddy-yap it's grand  
**__**Just holding your hand  
**__**We're gliding along with the song  
**__**Of a wintry fairy land**_

Bored, she looked over at Luna again. The Ravenclaw was looking ahead, a small smile on her face. It was almost eerie how much she was enjoying this. Jazzy shivered and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

When she looked up again, Luna was looking over at her. Noticing Jazzy, she turned away. Her cheeks were red, notable on her otherwise pale face.

"Are you cold?" Jazzy asked. Luna looked up, seeming confused for a moment.

"Oh, what? No, no…"

Jazzy considered offering her the blanket anyway, but decided against it. She didn't like charity, giving or receiving. Not to mention the fact that she wanted the blanket.

Of course, it was large enough for two, but _that_ was most definitely out of the question.

_**Our cheeks are nice and rosy  
**__**And comfy cozy are we  
**__**We're snuggled up together like two  
**__**Birds of a feather would be**_

She shrugged off her doubts. After all, the sun was up now, so it wasn't quite as cold as before.

Wait– the sun was up? _Crap_. Harry had planned for the gift exchange to take place on Christmas morning. Which meant that it was happening right now.

"Um… Luna?"

"What?"

"Harry. Party– gifts. Christmas. Now." She kicked herself inwardly at how incomprehensible she had sounded.

"Oh, yes, that. Of course!" The older girl calmly steered the sleigh downward. She was so unflustered that Jazzy debated whether she would have done the same exact thing without being reminded.

They circled around and descended, touching down a good 50 metres from the château. The landing was less than perfect. Jazzy decided that once this was over, she would most definitely stick to brooms.

The sleigh ground to a slow stop in front of the château. They dismounted– Luna gracefully, Jazzy hesitantly– and entered, Luna humming happily to herself.

_**Let's take the road before us  
**__**And sing a chorus or two  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you**_

Everyone was already seated around the fire when they entered. At the sound of the door opening, they glanced up.

"Luna, where were–" Hermione started, but Luna cut her off.

"Oh, around. You know…" Her hand fluttered around vaguely, as if to illustrate her sentence. Calmly, she settled down, picking up a Christmas cracker and grabbing a plate of food.

A while later, they were all laughing, the contents of the copious crackers spread throughout the room and over its occupants. It wasn't until a stray flick of Luna's paddleball hit Mad-Eye Moody that they thought about the rest of the gifts.

"Well then," Harry said, probably mostly to break the silence, "let's get started."

Luna went first. After a few gifts, the most memorable of which being a rather bizarre necklace, she handed Jazzy what looked like a piece of glass. _Thrilling_, Jazzy thought. She glanced into it, expecting to see her reflection, or something equally mundane. No such thing. Instead, Jazzy found herself staring rather skeptically at an oddly colored blob. Raising one eybrow, she tentatively asked "What is it?

"Isn't it nice?" Jazzy looked up to see Luna leaning over her shoulder. "It's an empath's mirror. It shows auras. Remember, like I was telling you about earlier?"

Jazzy looked back down at the mirror, at what was evidently her aura. It _was_ green, just like Luna had said. Occasionally curls of grey rippled through it, and it appeared to be vaguely and inexplicably tinged with pink. She was still studying it when Luna's voice jolted her out of her thoughts

"And everybody gets one of these!"

A white t-shirt landed with a thump on Jazzy's lap. It appeared to be mostly harmless, so she shoved the empath's mirror behind her ear– _how very like Luna_, she realized later– and unfolded the shirt.

Blushing hard, she shoved it aside. What had Luna been thinking? A glance at Hermione revealed that her face was even redder than Jazzy imagined her own to be. _Well, at least that explains some of it_… Jazzy thought wryly. Luna hummed cheerfully to herself, evidently oblivious to the discomfort of those gathered.

Jazzy was about to move on to her own gifts when Tonks stepped forward with gifts for both Harry and Hermione. And then of course, Mad-Eye seized the interruption as the perfect time to give Harry his own gift. So it was only several minutes later that Jazzy finally got around to handing out her own presents.

She gave the first two presents to Harry and Hermione. While she knew that Endangerment Buttons were rather low-tech, given all the drama that had surrounded the couple earlier that year, it seemed to Jazzy that something like that might be just what they needed. Her gift for Neville, which was something small as well, had been all of what she had expected to give, followed soon after.

She was about to sit back down when she made a rather impulsive decision. She hadn't given the idea of a gift for Luna much serious thought, but after all Luna had done for her, it felt sort of _odd_ not to have a present for her. Before she could think better of it, she grabbed the shirt from where it had been cast off on the overstuffed sofa and thrust it at the Ravenclaw.

"Here. I didn't get you anything," she mumbled, "but it probably suits you far better than it does me…"

"Wonderful!" Luna said brightly, pulling it on over her sweater. "Of course, I wouldn't know personally, but I've definitely heard–"

"Luna…" Hermione's face was once again turning a rather resplendent shade of red. "Are you sure that that's something you should share?"

"I've always thought it to be a good thing to air out one's mind every now and then," replied Luna, but much to the relief of those gathered, she didn't say more. Instead, she resumed her bemused humming, watching the scene with an air of detached interest.

_**There's a Christmas party at the home of Farmer Gray  
**__**It'll be the perfect ending of a perfect day  
**__**We'll be singing the songs we love to sing without a single stop  
**__**At the fireplace while we watch the chestnuts pop  
**__**Pop! Pop! Pop!**_

After a somewhat awkward silence, the gift-giving resumed with Neville. He started out by apologizing to Jazzy. She didn't get why he needed to. She'd said she didn't want anything, and she'd meant it.

Luna was absolutely delighted by Neville's gift of sandals. After circling the room once in them, she fell back on the sofa next to Jazzy, the same almost-orgasmic look of delight as yesterday spread over her face. Remembering how debilitated she had been then, Jazzy debated removing the sandals. She reached down to undo one of the straps, but pulled back rather suddenly when Luna let out a little giggle and bumped her foot up against Jazzy's hand. She shifted away a little, and continued to shoot nervous glances over at the empath while Neville distributed the rest of his gifts. Fortunately, she recovered quickly.

As the gift giving continued, Jazzy found herself to be rather overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone. When Hermione gave her the notes, she found, much to her embarrassment, that she was fighting back tears. While she still didn't like charity, she had to admit that no one had violated her requests. And watching Harry hand out the remainder of his gifts, she could see that at least she wasn't the only "victim" of his charity. Clutching the scroll that was her ticket away from her hateful relatives, she felt a warm feeling spread over her. For the first time, Jazzy felt wonderfully, truly happy.

Unbeknownst to her, her aura glowed a golden yellow in the empath's mirror.

_**There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy  
**__**When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie  
**__**It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives  
**__**These wonderful things are the things  
**__**We remember all through our lives**_

After the last present had been given, Jazzy carefully, slowly, gathered her things and was about to go upstairs when she felt a pull on her shoulder. When she turned around, the Ravenclaw was there, sporting a rather large Santa hat this time.

"You're not going back out?" Jazzy looked down at the collection in her arms, then back at Luna. "Oh, I see," she said breezily, and she followed Jazzy up the stairs.

Less than 5 minutes later, Luna was pulling Jazzy back outside. The snow was still falling lightly. When Jazzy glanced down, she nearly burst out laughing.

"You're still wearing that?" she finally managed.

The empath looked at her calmly. "It was a gift, after all." Jazzy shifted awkwardly. After all, she had been the one to return the shirt.

"I'm sorry… I hadn't gotten you anything, and I thought it was better than nothing," she ventured, after an overlong pause.

"Oh, it's quite all right," Luna replied easily.

Jazzy was confused. Luna had gone to all this trouble to arrange a sleigh ride and expected nothing in return? "Really? Even after everything you've done?"

She paused for a second, looking slightly confused. "What else would friends be for?" she asked with another smile, and Jazzy let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

Luna grabbed her hand. "You coming?" Jazzy tensed, but decided against pulling away.

She shrugged. "Why not?"

Luna laughed and pulled Jazzy along, further from the house. The wind blew soft snowflakes on their faces, and Jazzy found herself relaxing. Maybe this—the sleigh ride, winter, Luna—wasn't so bad after all.

_**Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,  
**__**Ring ting tingling too  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you  
**__**Come on, it's lovely weather  
**__**For a sleigh ride together with you**_

_Fin._


End file.
